As a social application is widely used, a UE can learn which other UEs exist within a specific range near the UE. This technology of discovering another nearby UE is referred to as a proximity-based discovery technology. Further, proximity-based device-to-device (D2D) communication within a specific distance may also be implemented by virtue of the proximity-based discovery technology. Therefore, such devices having a D2D communication capability are referred to as proximity-based devices.
In a current system, a method for implementing proximity-based discovery is as follows. A proximity-based service server is disposed on a network, and a UE registers with the proximity-based service server so as to obtain a proximity-based service. When needing to discover another nearby UE, a UE sends a discovery request to the proximity-based service server, and the proximity-based service server controls measurement and discovery between UEs, or the proximity-based service server instructs a base station to control measurement and discovery between UEs. Therefore, using network control, the UE can discover a UE within a specific distance around.
The UE may discover as many other UEs as possible within a maximum range using communications network control, and report a discovery result to the server. In an actual application, there may be a large quantity of other UEs within a specific distance around a UE, and all proximity-based UEs are measured and discovered. However, the UE does not care about all the discovered proximity-based UEs, and therefore, a large amount of signaling interaction between the network and the UE is wasted, resulting in heavy power consumption of the UE.